


Chili Sauce

by artisturtle



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F, Family Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gleeks Have Kids, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22674307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artisturtle/pseuds/artisturtle
Summary: It's the Annual Lima BMX Fest and Chili Cook-Off. Quinn and Rachel brings the kids along, as per tradition. One-Shot.
Relationships: Rachel Berry/Quinn Fabray, Santana Lopez/Brittany S. Pierce
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	Chili Sauce

**Author's Note:**

> You guys, here's a one-shot for all of you. I hope you enjoy!

Quinn stares at the spoon containing a reddish-brown sauce being held across her face. She curiously lifts a blonde brow at the brown-haired girl holding the other end of the spoon. “What’s this, Squirt? Is this some sort of another weird food experiment you and your friends came up with again?”

The brown-haired girl shakes her head and Quinn just hums. The blonde woman takes a small whiff of the substance, scrunching her nose as the spicy smell emanates from the spoon. “Oh, that’s a kicker,” she intones, and the girl’s chocolate eyes light up as Quinn takes a taste. “This actually tastes good, Koko. What did you do with this chili sauce, huh?”

The girl, whose name is Koko, just scrunches her nose. “It’s a secret recipe, Momma.”

“You seem so eager to win that blue ribbon in the BMX Fest Cook-Off,” Quinn says amusedly. “You know, you remind me of someone so hell-bent to win and be excellent at everything.”

Koko huffs as she jumps out of the bar stool. “Sam Junior is making spice-cheese tots,” she offers the information. “He’s making them into bite-size things and I can’t help but think they’re so cute.”

“It sounds like something his Mom would make. Your Aunt Cedes loved her tots way too much way back in high school,” Quinn intones. “How about you, what are you making?”

“Chili-cheddar crock pot,” Koko says. “I’m not even sure if the chili sauce was right, Mom. It’s not probably going to bring home that blue ribbon as you call it.”

Quinn nods at her daughter, placing a gentle hand on Koko’s arm. “Hey, cut yourself some slack, you’re twelve, not twenty,” says Quinn, as she ruffles the girl’s mop of chestnut hair.

“I mean, I can understand that this means so much to you, Koko. Believe me, it means a lot to me, too. It means a lot to me that you get to do something you love and you have something to be good at – and at a very young age at that, but this is just a part of something bigger. It’s okay if you don’t win this year’s cook-off. Hell, who joins cook-offs when they’re twelve? Not a lot, I’d say.”

“I want to win, Mom. Besides Sam is just fourteen and he won last year. And this is my third year joining and I’ve yet to win, Mom.”

Quinn pulls her daughter for a hug. “That’s beside the point, Squirt. I know you want to win. And I want you to win, too. But if you don’t, I won’t mind. We would never mind it at all. It’s not like we’re going to love you less. But we would mind it a lot if you won’t try your best at whatever you want to do, just because you’re scared you’d fail,” Quinn tells her daughter. “So why don’t you kick everyone’s ass tomorrow at the cook-off, huh? All of us will be there to support you. Why don’t you show all of them what you got?”

Quinn feels Koko giggle against her chest. “I love you, Mom.”

“I know, I love you too, Squirt.”

Quinn is watching her chestnut-haired wife who is currently invested with doing her bedtime reading. Slowly, Quinn inches her way to her wife and gently takes the brunette’s free hand in hers. The blonde places butterfly kisses on her wife’s knuckles.

“Rachel, baby…can we talk?”

“Hm?” her wife hums in response.

Quinn could practically hear the cogs in her wife’s brain going on as her wife deftly puts her bookmark on the page she’s invested in before putting the book on the bedside table. She turns her body towards Quinn, giving the blonde her full attention.

“Baby, do you think we’re putting so much pressure on the kids?” Quinn asks, pulling her wife into a warm embrace. “I mean, Koko made crock pot chili today. It’s for the annual cook-off on Saturday. She’s so worried she wouldn’t win. I mean, I was just thinking. This has got me thinking. Have we unconsciously pressured our children to…excel?”

“What did you tell her?” her wife asks.

“I told her it’s alright not to win the cook-off, Rach. It’s not like it’s a professional cook-off. I just…” she runs out of words, and Rachel looks at her with open eyes and an open face and she feels compelled to continue. “I just don’t want them to resent us. I don’t wish for a perfect family, Rachel. I don’t wish to have a family that looks so perfect in the outside…and…and…”

The dam had broken and Quinn is now openly crying in her wife’s arms, and Rachel scoots over so they can face each other. Quinn feels her wife’s lithe fingers brushing the wayward blonde hair from her face.

“Baby, look at me…” Rachel whispers. “You and me, look at us. We’re not like your parents. You’re not like your dad, okay? You’re the most considerate, the kindest parent our children could ask for. We’re not perfect parents and we don’t have perfect kids and sometimes they can drive us crazy, but we are good parents. Don’t tell yourself otherwise, okay?”

“I just don’t want…Koko or Lily or Evan…to end up…hating me or what they are,” Quinn wheezes, and she hiccups in her wife’s arms. “I don’t want them resenting us. Or worse…”

Rachel sighs as she plants a kiss on Quinn’s forehead. “Have you ever seen the way Evan lights up when he wins a game and he blows a kiss at you every time he scores a home run? Last week, he did that little victory dance you taught him when he was five after they won. Have you seen the way Lily sings on that stage and looks at you? Have you ever seen Koko look at you with every bit of emotion her small heart could carry? Don’t sell yourself short, Quinn. You are good, you’re a good person. And you’re not like your Dad. I’ve watched our children grow up and I can assure you they’re only looking at you with love. The same way I only look at you.”

Quinn wheezes wetly against Rachel’s cheek. Then, she pulls her wife in for a deep kiss.

“Well,” Rachel beams at the shy smile Quinn gives her once they’ve pulled apart. “I should’ve just kissed you earlier to cheer you up. I think it works that way, too.”

Quinn slaps Rachel’s arm. “Go to sleep, Berry.”

Rachel laughs out loudly. “Only next to you, love.”

The next morning, Quinn's heart falls when she walks into Barry Lopez-Pierce stuffing the red sauce in a glass jar in her kitchen at five-thirty in the morning. She wishes her mind did not go just there, but it did. The sixteen-year old gives Quinn a toothy grin, waving the wooden spatula right at her face. She squirms, feeling a foreboding that Barry reminds her so much of a sixteen-year old Noah Puckerman. Besides, the boy had adored his ‘Army Uncle’ as he fondly calls Noah, much to Santana’s chagrin and Brittany’s amusement.

She mentally lists to mention it to Santana for later at the cook-off.

“Hey Auntie Q,” he says breathlessly, his face still split in that shit-eating grin. “Good morning!”

“Why are you here so early, Barry? Not that you’re not allowed to visit my kids or anything,” Quinn tries hard to be gentle in her tone as she slides a plate of bacon between her and Barry to share. She had seen the lingering looks between Barry and her eldest daughter, and Barry hanging out in her house doesn’t certainly help her with her anxiety.

Rachel had already called her out on it, telling her that Lily can be trusted with herself and that she should trust Santana and Brittany raising Barry, but she had her reservations and worries. She will always have her worries.

“Lily called me up a couple of hours ago,” Barry says as he picks up a strip. “Said Koko needs help with the chili sauce.”

Quinn snorts involuntarily. “Seriously, Barry.”

Realization washes over Barry’s face and he turns somber. For a moment, Quinn stops and looks at the boy. She realizes then, that Barry is nothing like Noah Puckerman at sixteen years old. She feels something cold wash over her, but Barry’s brown eyes are full of understanding and they remain steadfast.

“Hey Auntie Q,” he says softly. “If you worry about me and Lily, it’s okay. I get it. I understand. Mama and Mommy worry about us, too. And I…I know what happened to you at sixteen, Uncle Puck had told me that and…I mean, you’re not the only one who worries. I mean you’re not the only one on that boat, so…”

“Barry, slow down…”

Barry sighs. The Puckerman bravado is now gone from his stance and it’s replaced with the unadulterated openness that she rarely sees with the boy.

“What I meant to say, Auntie Q…is that I really care about Lily,” he sighs again, fully abandoning the bacon strip he’s holding in his hand. “And she really matters to me. And I know she wants to wait, and I can wait…and…and we’re not even official yet, but…”

“Barry…stop right there,” Quinn mutters, also forgoing her bacon. “Do you love my daughter?”

Barry blinks, not really registering the question. Quinn had to repeat the question before Barry seems to gather his voice and his courage. “Y-yes,” his voice slightly wavers and is an octave higher than normal, and beads of sweat are showing on his brown brows. “I…I really do.”

“Oh,” is all Quinn could say.

She pushes the plate of bacon towards Barry. “You should eat them before they get cold, Barry.”

“Wait…does this…”

Quinn gives Barry a smile. “Barry, I’ve changed your diapers. I know you, but I just want to make sure. I’ll unleash the dogs of hell on you if you hurt Lily but I think your Mama will get it covered for me. Eat your bacon, I know you love them.”

Barry chews on the food, mulling things over. It’s quiet for a while before his eyes snap back up to Quinn. The bravado is back, albeit a little bit subdued. “Hey Auntie Q, If I win Koko her cook-off this year, will I be allowed to take Lily out on a date?”

Quinn laughs, the last of the tension ebbing away like the ebb of the ocean tide. “Dude, that’s something Lily should decide on her own. I’m not helping you get a date.”

Barry shrugs. “Guy can try.”

The boy leaves the kitchen just as Rachel comes in through the back door, sweaty and hair windswept from her morning run. He gives a wave at Rachel before dashing out of the room. Quinn automatically moves to retrieve the towel she’s bringing in to give it to her wife.

“Thanks babe, but why’s Barry so early hanging out here?” Rachel asks as she accepts the towel. Quinn proceeds to hand her a glass of water.

Quinn sits on the bar stool Barry has just vacated. “Lila called him early up. Koko needed help with uh…the chili sauce.”

Rachel arches a perfect brow at her wife. “You didn’t terrorize him?”

Quinn shrugs and Rachel lets out a laugh that echoes in their kitchen. Quinn watches in awe as the sunlight hits her wife’s chestnut hair, making it look like golden gossamer in the morning light. Just as Quinn thought she had learned to love Rachel with all that she had, little things like these make her stop for a moment and make her love Rachel a little more.

So, she takes Rachel into her arms and kisses her chastely on the lips.

“Aren’t you a little cheeky?” Rachel smiles into their kiss, faces merely just a hair’s breadth away from each other. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“No, I didn’t,” Quinn whispers. “Everything’s perfect, Rachel. Everything is perfect.”

The entire Fabray-Berry household is piled up in their gigantic van. Quinn sits behind the wheel, while Rachel is on the passenger seat, egging everyone to wear sunscreen because ‘one can never be too careful’ with the heat.

The entire van is sweltering against the listless Lima heat and Quinn had fired the AC running but she’s still coated with a thin sheen of sweat as they drive through downtown Lima. Finally, when they hit the freeway, Quinn rolled the windows down, letting air into the van.

Santana jogs to their van once it pulls up. She shares a fist pump with Evan before ruffling Koko’s hair and proceeding to give Quinn and Rachel a hug. The three teens take off to the cook-off stand, where Barry is waiting for them with a table already set up.

“What took you so long, you guys? You missed Barry and Britt during their first event,” Santana says sullenly as she leads Quinn and Rachel to the tented areas. Quinn ducks her head apologetically, but it’s Rachel who explains it to Santana.

“Quinn lost the keys,” Rachel says. “Again.”

Santana groans as she leads them all to the stands. “I swear Fabray’s just gotten worse each year, Berry. How do you even put up with her?”

Rachel just laughs and ruffles Quinn’s hair in response.

Quinn excitedly leans forward on her chair, the chili hotdog in her hand almost forgotten, because the Mitt Rochester from WOHN is on the microphone announcing the winners of the Lima Cook-Off. There’s a cacophony of sounds and she strains to hear what Mitt is saying.

“And for our second prize, our lucky winner of a gift certificate from Bennetts and Phillips Lee Kum Kee Chili amounting to two thousand dollars and a check worth five hundred dollars! Okay, Daryl give me a drum roll please,” Mitt motions to the sound guy on the side of the stage, and a drum roll ensues.

“Caroline Fabray for her chili cheddar crock pot!” Mitt gushes. “You guys, I’ve personally tasted it and the sauce is just a kick and it blows!”

Three things happen at once: Santana and Rachel scream each others’ ears off, Quinn stands from her seat, her hotdog flying out of her hands and Barry shares a fist bump with Koko before he urges Koko to claim her prize on the stage.

When they’re headed home that night, Quinn couldn’t help but listen in to Koko gushing about her experience and her win. The light in her daughter’s eyes is precious, and she thinks that maybe she had driven her point home because Koko seems to pay it no mind when she just won second place.

Rachel gushes at how proud she is to have a chef for a daughter. Lily had taken time to braid her hair and Evan is just as proud, although he’s dozing on his seat at the back of the car. When Lily starts to ask Koko what she did with her crock pot, the twelve-year old just shrugs.

“It’s easy,” she says. Her voice has turned a tone of conspiracy. “Barry and I just threw in Tabasco and chili sauce from Wendy’s.”

Quinn accidentally steps on the brakes, making them all jolt in surprise.

“What?!” Rachel, Lily, Evan and Quinn say in unison.

Koko just shrugs. And they all share a laugh.

**(#)**

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading through this. Kindly let me know what you think and hit up that comments box below. Much love from here! xx


End file.
